Attacus Atlas & Other Inventions: Love-hate relationship

Aloha!

What I like about my debut novel, The Atlas of Reds and Blues: it’s short. Also, I think it’s full of suspense.

What I love about writing in general: I get to tell stories, I get to try out new writing techniques. I get to read books about craft. I get to write poems. I get to attend writing conferences and workshops, where I meet other writers and poets and we talk about books, and writing and craft. It’s all so amazing.

What I don’t love about writing: the isolation. The loneliness. Writing is largely a solitary endeavor. No one can do it for you, and unless you’re on a multiple author project, no one can do it with you, either.

Still that is a price I’m willing to pay because I love creating new worlds with words.

My favorite writing craft books (because they all talk discuss in some small or large way the importance and necessity of taking breaks): Kenneth Atchity’s A Writer’s Time and Ursula LeGuin’s Steering The Craft and Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones and Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life, and Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.

Mahalo.